A Tennessee man will spend the next several decades behind bars for brutally killing a mother and her young child.

In June, Gabriel Fitzgerald Boykins, 50, was convicted by a Hamilton County jury on two counts of murder in the second degree .

On Thursday, the defendant was sentenced to 45 years in state prison. The court handed down a 20-year sentence for the death of 40-year-old Tamara Church; a 25-year sentence was imposed for the death of her daughter, Aquarious Church, 8. The judge overseeing the case assessed the sentences to run consecutively, or one after another.

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Emotion ran high during the sentencing hearing, according to a courtroom repor

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